Arraignment for Man Accused in Killing Spree

W H I T E  R I V E R  J U N C T I O N, Vt., Aug. 2 -- A man accused of killing three men during a crime spree that may have lasted a week faced arraignment in Massachusetts today in two of the slayings.

Gary Sampson, 41, has remained cryptic about his motive. "If you guys keep harassing me, you're going to miss the realstory," he said as he was escorted, hands bound, into theMiddleboro (Mass.) State Police barracks Wednesday night afterwaiving extradition from Vermont. He faced murder charges inBrockton and Plymouth district courts. The FBI is investigating news media reports that Sampson calledthe agency's Boston office to surrender on bank robbery charges theday before he began his alleged killing spree, but they never cameto arrest him. Charles Prouty, special agent in charge of the FBI office inBoston, said today that the agency hasn't found any record ofthe call after an initial review. "We have looked at the complaint forms, we've talked to thepeople who were on duty and we've interviewed everybody in the bankrobbery squad that would normally take this type of a complaint,and we have not found any record of them coming in," he said. Sampson, whose last known address was Tamworth, N.H., is accusedof murdering Philip McCloskey, 69, a Taunton, Mass., retiree;Jonathan Rizzo, 19, a college student home for the summer inKingston, Mass., and Robert Whitney, 58, a contractor and formercity councilor in Concord, N.H.

Investigators: Suspect Admitted Golf Course Killing

In court documents filed Wednesday in Brockton, Mass., DistrictCourt, investigators said Sampson admitted taking Rizzo behind amini golf course in Abington, Mass, tying him to a tree andstabbing him to death. Sampson said he took the victim's car, which was found at theNew Hampshire death scene, $110 in cash and a case of beer that wasin the trunk of the car. Based on the information, police found Rizzo's body Tuesdaynight. McCloskey, who had been robbed, was found stabbed to death andcovered with leaves last Thursday in Marshfield, Mass. Whitney wasstrangled, to New Hampshire authorities. Whitney apparently waskilled after confronting a stranger inside the Meredith home, whichhe was maintaining for its elderly owner.